Re-reading: Why I do it!

Have you ever a read a book that was so good when you finished, you flicked back to page one and started over right away?

There have been a handful of books with which I’ve done this, one not too long ago and it got me to wondering just what is it that makes us want to do this. –>

I think for me, it’s more likely I’ll want to re-read if the story has a massive, well-written, plot twist near the end. The kind that makes me go WOW, where the heck did that come from? Then ten minutes later I’m thinking back to certain points in the plot and nodding. As soon as I realize it was hinted at long before it happened, I want to go back and try to find all the little hints that I may not have picked up in the first read. I call these my thinking books. 😉

Or sometimes it’s because I’m so invested in the characters that I’m just not ready to let them go yet, so I flick back to the beginning to savour them a little longer and pretend the characters are *whispers* real people. These are my I-wish-we-were-friends-irl books.

Then there’s the third type… the type of book that makes it onto my annual reading list, because it was just so darn good in every aspect that I want to experience reading it for the first time again. So I patiently wait around twelve months until some of the detail has faded from my memory and read it again, but that’s never enough, so I patiently wait another twelve months… These are my I-wish-I-could-climb-inside books.

I know lots of people don’t re-read, but it’s something I love to do because for me

Tell me, if you’re a re-reader what type of book makes you want to read it again? Oh, and bonus question… what is the most read book on your bookshelf?

Stacey Nash is a reading addict. Having read Wuthering Heights a grand total of 15 times (over many, many years), the first Tomorrow When The War Began 11 times and Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy 6 times, she’s currently working up the grand total for some newer favourites. She writes too. And sometimes gets addicted to re-writing (it’s kind of like re-reading). To find out more about her writing, you can find her at www.stacey-nash.com.

2 Comments

For me, it’d be the Herald-Mage of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey. That’s my comfort food for the brain. I don’t re-read for plot twists, although I will flick through the book afterwards and skim it for the foreshadowing. (I did that with the book you’re referring to.)